


Triptico

by htbthomas



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Christmas Eve, Family Feels, Gen, Lost items, Misses Clause Challenge, POV Multiple, Post-Season/Series 02, Yuletide 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-20 06:12:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17017254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/htbthomas/pseuds/htbthomas
Summary: Something lost is found.(Told through the point of view of the three generations of women in the family.)





	Triptico

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toomanysecrets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanysecrets/gifts).



> Thanks to sonni89 for initial brainstorming and Geekhyena for the beta. ♥

_One Week to Christmas_

"Keep your pants on, Mami, it's right in here." Penelope walked into her room, Lydia trailing close behind.

Lydia waved a doubtful hand in the air. "It's just that I never see you wear it." She ran a glance over the room, which was in a messier state than usual. "Though it could be right there and you'd never be able to find it."

"It's been a busy week, okay?" Penelope blew out a frustrated breath, and opened up the jewelry box on her dresser.

"A busy _week_?"

"Year?" Penelope shrugged. "Okay, life. You know what my life is like, Mami."

"I do," Lydia said, and dropped the subject.

Penelope's shoulders relaxed, but tightened again as she searched the box. She pulled out each item, checking the backs and examining them closely.

"I can see that it is 'right in here.'"

Penelope stopped looking and turned to her mother with a scowl. "It _was_ there. I distinctly remember that it was there last time I saw it."

"Lupe..."

"I will find it, I promise!"

"It's just that Papi gave it to me when we first became serious and I wanted to give it to—"

"—yes, yes, to Elena, because God knows I—"

"—never wear it." Lydia sighed and walked out of the bedroom and back toward her alcove.

Penelope trailed after her this time. "That's not true. I just can't wear it to work. It dangles down and which makes it easy to get caught in... things," she said, realization dawning on her face.

Lydia stopped and turned to Penelope with a look of horror. "What—like a bloody wound?"

"No, Mami, nothing like that. I was just afraid it was going to. That's why I took it off."

The silence stretched a moment too long.

"And?" Lydia prompted.

"And..." Penelope's face started to drain of color. "I think it might be at work. But I don't know where."

Lydia's face turned the same shade. "At work? With all the germs?" She sat down heavily on the edge of her bed and crossed herself. "Dale, Señor, el descanso eterno. Y brille para él la luz perpetua. Descanse en paz. Amén."

"Mami, it's not dead. I'm going to find it, clean it..." At Lydia's look, she added, "... _bleach_ it, and give it back to you so you can give it to Elena." She strode to the table to put on her coat and purse. As she headed for the door, she saw Lydia starting on the rosary. "I told you it's not dead!"

Lydia shrugged. "It's not the only prayer I know. Maybe San Cristóbal can lend a hand."

* * *

_Six Months Ago_

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, owwwwww!" Schneider wailed as Penelope led him through the doors of Dr. Berkowitz's practice. His arm was wrapped in a makeshift sling and he was limping besides. "Be more gentle with it!"

"It wouldn't be hurting so badly if you'd had it looked at right away," Penelope said as she helped him into a chair in the waiting room. "Or swollen. Or probably infected."

Schneider frowned. "It's just a sprain! Why would I go to the doctor for a little thing like that!"

"Because it's not just a sprain if it's all red..."

"What do you mean, it's fine."

"And puffy..."

"It's the normal amount of puffy."

"And tender to the touch." She gently prodded the puffiest part. At his "OW!" she nodded with satisfaction.

"That wasn't very nice."

Dr. Berkowitz bustled into the room, Scott trailing behind. "What's going on?" Dr. Berkowitz asked. "Why are you here an hour before your shift?"

"Schneider broke his elbow and I practically had to drag him here to get him to see someone," Penelope explained.

"Broken?" Schneider protested. "It's sprained at the most! It doesn't even hurt unless I move it."

Penelope raised her hands in a gesture of 'Can you believe this guy?' and walked back toward the back to prepare the examining room and get washed up. She really didn't want to come in early today, especially not when it had been a week of long days that overtime barely made tolerable. She looked into the mirror into her tired eyes and noticed the eyeliner on the left side was a little askew compared to the right. Aw, hell, what did it really matter? Makeup didn't really make her look any less tired. She leaned over into the sink a little further to wash the lather off her upper arms, and her necklace swung free from her shirt. It was the pendant Mami gave her one Christmas when she was in high school, three pearls set with rubies. She had been trying to find reasons to wear it, especially after the scare that almost took Mami from them.

As tired as she was, she'd decided that morning she wanted to wear something pretty, something that matched her scrubs. As soon as she'd closed the clasp behind her neck and admired it long enough to decide it was a little _too_ nice for work, she'd heard a loud clatter and a shout from the kitchen. She'd rushed out to find Schneider on his back beside a ladder in the kitchen.

"What happened?" she'd asked, frantic. "And when did you even get here?" She'd been in the shower not ten minutes ago!

"Just—" He'd winced because he'd tried to point with the injured arm. "Checking the wiring on the kitchen light. Lydia said it was roto." He started to get up and cried out in pain before settling back down. "I didn't know what she meant, but it doesn't look rotated...?"

"No, that means 'broken.' Like your elbow basically is."

"Man, I gotta keep up with my Duolingo."

After a lot of arguing, she'd finally gotten him to the Doc—he'd refused to even consider going to the emergency room ("I'm an American now, you know I can't afford that!") and she knew the Doc could see him long before the ER would anyway. But that meant she'd never had the chance to remove the necklace. Maybe she should just—

"Penelope!" Dr. Berkowitz called out from the examining room. "A little help?"

She turned to see Scott and the Doc dragging a completely passed out Schneider through the doors. "Wow, he really cannot handle pain!" Scott said.

"What did you do?" Penelope rushed over to lift Schneider's legs off the floor, and they all moved with careful side-steps toward the examining table.

"I just asked him to try to straighten his elbow, so I could determine the extent of the damage." Dr. Berkowitz shook his head. "All he said was okay, and then he was gone. Head just lolling."

Scott added, "I barely caught him before he cracked his head on the magazine table."

They gently laid Schneider on the table. "It's gonna be tough to get that arm X-rayed with him unconscious like this," Penelope said.

"Hmm. You're right. Maybe we'd better wait to see if he'll come out of it first. I can try to move some appointments around..." Dr. Berkowitz wandered off toward the reception desk.

"I'll go get the plaster for a cast ready, just in case," Scott said.

She looked down at poor, unconscious Schneider there on the table. And noticed a red mark on his temple. She leaned over him to get a closer look—it was starting to swell, too. She hadn't noticed it before, in all the rush to get him here. He might have a concussion. She turned her head to call "Doc!" when suddenly she heard a groan and a tug on the necklace that pulled her downward close to Schneider's face. Too close. "That's... pretty..." he murmured, clutching it like a toddler in his fast.

"Let..." She carefully untangled his fingers from the pendant. Mami would have her head on a platter if something happened to it! "...go." She stepped back a safe distance, and undid the clasp. Before she called the Doc, before anything else, she had to put this away. She looked around for something to put it in, maybe a baggie or some kind of container. Maybe... a test tube? No way, she could just see that accidentally getting sent off to the lab. And she was already getting enough hell from them for the other time.

"So shiny," Schneider said, still fixated on the necklace dangling from her hand.

With a frustrated huff, she bunched it up into her hand and shoved it into her pocket. "Doc!" she called out. "He's awake! And I think he might have a concussion!"

The rest of the day was such a blur, Penelope never noticed when the necklace fell out of her pocket and into the corner of the room.

* * *

_Three Months Ago_

Elena turned a page in her book. For once she had the apartment all to herself. Abuelita was at a dance class—teaching it, of course. Elena was so glad to see that she'd hardly slowed down after her stroke. Alex was out with his friends—which ones she had no idea. And Mom was at her therapy group—which often led to going out with the girls afterward. All her homework was done, even though she still wanted to give that history essay a third revision before she turned it in on Monday. But she rarely got the place all to herself, so there she was, book in hand and curled up comfy on the couch, completely engrossed.

In fact, she was so into the book that she didn't hear the knock on the door at first. When she finally did hear the knock, it was so loud that the book tumbled out of her hands when she startled upright.

She could hear the voice now, too. "Hey! Is anyone home?"

She got up from the couch, and padded over to the door in her slippers, peering out the peephole. "Dr. Berkowitz?"

"Elena?" he said, his voice muffled through the door. "Is your mom home?"

"No," she told him. "She's at her group." Then she felt weird that she was still talking to him through the door, when he was clearly not a home invader. Opening the door, she waved him in, saying, "Did she know you were coming? She didn't tell me."

"I tried to call her, but it's no big deal. I just thought I'd drop this by." He handed her a test tube, labeled 'Penelope' on the side.

"Whoa," she said, almost dropping it. "What is this?" She carefully balanced it between two fingers, lips peeling back to cringe. "Why did you bring this here instead of to a lab or something!?"

"A lab?" Dr. Berkowitz's frowned in puzzlement. Then his face cleared. "Oh, no, it's not bodily fluids or anything, Lord, no. I just didn't really have anything to put it in and I didn't want to put it in my pocket. It looked too valuable."

"Valuable?" Elena held up the test tube and tilted it toward the ceiling light to see it better. "What is it?"

"One of your mom's necklaces. I know it's hers, I saw her wearing a few times. The cleaners found it behind one of the machines in the examining room when they were doing their quarterly deep cleaning. I hope she hasn't been too worried about it."

"I haven't heard her talk about a missing necklace." Especially not a valuable one. Her mom was pretty much a J C Penney kind of jewelry shopper, if at all. "She probably forgot she took it off."

"Well, regardless, let her know I found it." He looked down at his watch. "Oh, I've got to get going. Got a dance class! See you later, Elena."

"Dance class—?" she began to ask, but he was already out the door. If it was Abuelita's class, she wouldn't be too happy about latecomers. She shrugged and set the test tube on the kitchen table to give to her mom when she got home. Then she settled back down on the couch to read.

Elena was fast asleep by the time Alex got home. So asleep that she never heard the clatter when he dumped his things all over the table, let alone the soft clink of the test tube rolling to the floor and behind the curio cabinet.

* * *

_One Month Ago_

"And that's when the kid tried to bite me," Penelope said. She took a drink from her glass, and continued, "But he was too slow."

"Good for you, Mami," Alex said, nodding with approval. "I know where I get my lightning-fast reflexes." They shared a high five.

"But the Doc wasn't so lucky." She chuckled. "And those were some sharp teeth, too. I didn't know there would be so much blood from such a little bite."

That was enough. "Ay, hija, stop! It's dinner time," Lydia complained. "This is a whole new—and bad—version of taking your work home with you."

"I'm sorry, I just can't stop thinking about it."

Lydia threw her fork down onto her plate. "And now neither can I."

"You know the worst part of the whole thing? The mom didn't even apologize. She was all like, 'you know how boys are' and expected us to keep treating him. Hey," Penelope said, gesturing broadly, "I work for a doctor, not a veterinarian!" She shared another high five with Alex.

Elena tossed down her fork, too. "I hate that phrase."

"What? Veterinarian?" Penelope frowned in confusion.

"No. 'Boys will be boys.' Thank you, patriarchy, for another edition of toxic masculinity! It should be, 'Teach your kids to treat everyone with respect.'" She lifted a hand toward her brother. "I mean, look at Alex, he's actually a decent human being."

Alex lifted an eyebrow. "Actually?"

Elena started to smirk. "Sometimes."

Alex straightened to his full height. "Don't even play. You know everyone loves me."

Elena slumped and said, "Unfortunately," at the same time as Penelope grabbed him by the shoulders and ruffled his hair, saying, "Yeah, we do!"

Lydia smiled. It was nice to have such a familia feliz. They could tease each other through the good times and support each other through the bad. Everything Berto would have wanted. She picked up her fork again and took another bite now that the topic was off disgusting things.

All too soon, everyone was off doing their own thing, homework, texting, bubble bath—while Lydia was clearing the table. She brought the glasses and plates a few at a time toward the sink. She'd been moving a little slower since her hospital scare—not too slow, she could still dance with the best of them—but slower. And for good reason. As she took the last glass, a shakiness came over her, and the cup slipped from her hands to the floor, bounced and rolled.

She froze. The glass had not broken, but it had made a loud enough sound that one of the others could have heard it and come running. They had treated her like she was made of spun glass for the first month, and it had been a struggle to ease their fears.

No shouts, no running feet. Good. She glanced around the hardwood floor to see where the glass had gone. Ah, next to the curio cabinet. She bent down carefully to pick it up (she still might be able to dance like a woman thirty years younger, but there was no reason to tempt fate). She plucked it from the floor with manicured fingers, and that's when she saw it.

A test tube, wedged between the cabinet and wall.

Her first instinct was to jitter a step backward and yell "Lupe!" but she held off. She'd complained that Lupe was bringing her work home with her, but this was ridiculous! With a sigh, she picked it up, too.

It rattled as she lifted it.

Lydia nearly dropped it like the glass, images of what terrible things could rattle around in a medical test tube flooding through her mind. She rose from her crouch as quickly as possible and set it beside the sink so she could wash her hands. It clinked as it hit the counter. Clink?

She turned off the water, her curiosity getting the best of her. and shook the test tube. What sort of thing made a _clink_?

Sure she was going to be unpleasantly surprised, she pried open the cap. She saw a gold chain, a glint of red and a white shimmer. Carefully, she tipped the contents out onto the counter. It was not what she expected.

It was Berto's necklace.

Once again, her first instinct was to yell "Lupe!" but as before, she refrained. How did this precious item for one, end up in a test tube, and two, end up unnoticed behind a piece of furniture? There was definitely una historia there. She coiled it up carefully and started to place it in her pocket... then stopped. How easily it could get lost there! Instead she undid the clasp and placed it around her neck. Lupe would see it there and confess the whole sordid tale.

After three days of constant wear, she gave up. She thought she'd raised a more observant child! Even playing with it as she talked to Lupe had no effect at all. Her poor daughter was so overworked that she barely took the time to keep up her own appearance, let alone notice someone else's. Maybe she should get her a spa day for la Navidad.

A thought hit her like a bolt from the blue. Of course! 

It was hard to keep from smiling secretively as she told everyone she was going out for a while. But no one really noticed, their worry for her had lessened as the months passed. As it should be.

* * *

_Christmas Eve_

"Lupe! Elena! It's almost time to go!" Lydia shouted toward the back bedrooms while putting the finishing touches on her Misa de Navidad outfit. It was stunning, as always. 

Alex was already ready, a vision of a dapper young gentleman sitting on the couch. She could see so much of her Berto in him it made her heart swell. The only thing that ruined the illusion was the phone in his hand. As she came to join him, she said, "Tu madre y tu hermana are going to—" But she couldn't finish what she had been going to say. 'Send me back to the hospital room' was still a bit too morbid almost a year later. Instead she said, "Make us so late." Back toward the bedrooms, she called, "If you don't hurry, we won't get the best seats!"

"Don't worry, Abuelita. My friend Peter is going to save us some seats up front just in case." He showed her his screen, and she squinted to read the tiny text.

She gave up, patting his leg. "You are too good, my sweet boy." He preened for a moment and went back to his phone. 

"Mami..." "Abuelita..." she heard from behind her, and she turned to see her two girls, looking both beautiful and miserable at the same time.

"Ah!" she said, rising and coming toward them. "You are ready! Hurry. I want to be so close that I can count the stitches in Bishop Gómez's inglete."

"Wait, before we go," Lupe said, stopping her from walking toward the door. "I have to confess something."

"Me too," Elena said.

"Ooh," Alex said. "This is gonna be good!"

"You know that necklace you were asking me about? The one you gave me when I was a teenager?"

"You figured out where it was?" Lydia knew very well that she hadn't, but it had been so fun watching Lupe scramble around worriedly tearing the apartment apart and pretending nothing was wrong.

"I knew where it was," Elena said. "And then I lost it again." Lydia had wondered why Elena had been helping so fervently.

"Ooohhhhh, someone's in _trouble_ ," Alex said, undeterred by Elena's angry look. 

"That's too bad," Lydia said, placing her hand dramatically on her chest. "I had really wanted to pass it on to you, Elena, as a memory of your dear abuelito."

"I know, Mom told me," Elena said, "And I'm so sorry. If I'd known what it was when Dr. Berkowitz brought it by..."

 _That_ was new information! "Leslie had it?" Lydia asked, affronted and shocked.

"Yeah," Lupe said, "It must have fallen out of my pocket at work and he found it."

Well, there was la historia at last. "I see." She walked over to the Christmas tree and plucked two small gifts from underneath. "Then I suppose I should give you these now..."

"What?" Lupe protested. "We never open presents until after Mass!"

"It's a tradition!" Elena added.

"We're doing presents now?" Alex said. "Sweet!"

"No, papi, slow down. You'll get your gifts later. But this is for now." She handed both Lupe and Elena their gifts. When they hesitated, she urged, "Go on. Open them."

Lupe tore into hers, and Elena picked at the tape carefully, but in the end, they opened both boxes at once. "Mami...?" Lupe breathed.

"Funny story, I found this strange test tube behind the curio cabinet..."

Elena lifted hers out of the box—a gold necklace with a single pearl framed by rubies. "It's _gorgeous_ , Abuelita."

"Is it...? Lupe asked, pulling hers out of the box as well.

Then Lydia lifted the one she was also wearing from under her neckline. "Yes. It is the same. I decided it deserved a second chance at life." Just like she had received almost a year ago. "One we three could share." She helped secure them around each of her girls' necks with a gentle kiss and a "Feliz Navidad."

Even with the tears and the hugs, they still got seats for Mass in the third row. Not the best seats in the house, but that didn't matter. Any seats she could share with her family were the best.


End file.
